Discussion Topic

Online forum owners and individuals who post messages can be held liable for invasion of privacy or for making defamatory statements, which are damaging, false statements of fact.

Chances of plaintiffs winning such lawsuits are not high. Many lawsuits are thrown out of court or settled before trial, but not before causing major problems for the accused. Chris could go bankrupt just defending such litigation ...regardless of its merit.

Chris allows us a great deal of latitude on Supertopo Forum...and questioning Mr Ryan's claims is not unreasonable.

But the profusion of derision and glut of hate filled posts that came with disputing Ryan's assertions, here, could be used to manifest allegations of defamation and libel.

Chris HAS to be discerning in how far he permits maligning and derision of individuals...especially public figures.

Another angle on this. The original threads gained some attention on your national stage. That in turn might have attracted all sorts of political trolls to SuperTopo. Not just amateurs, like most of us, but the professionals. Not only further diluting what the forum is about, but creating a management problem. Perhaps Chris simply didn't want to have to deal with that, and took pre-emptive action.

A story like the disappearance of this thread might seem petty and unworthy of much concern to many, but if his claims of mountain mastery were proven to be imaginary, I believe it could ruin his career, or certainly his chances for the presidency. It would be a story he could never live down.

The kind of corruption, lust for power and money that is at play here might make the disappearance of such a credible discussion as the one on ST a high priority.

Chris' silence on the matter does raise suspicions about his involvement in, or at least knowledge of what happened. Seems he could offer some kind of explanation.

Rick was really onto something, I think. It would seem somebody would have the skills to trace what happened, and who made it happen. The answers to those questions might be far more intriguing than the original thread was.

Not the way I see it. Ryan's lying about his marathon time was unconverted--and it was still a small story that quickly blew over. Ryan's 14er hiking can never really be proved or disproved, and his handlers came up with explanations of Ryan's statements that were probably BS at some level, but were plausible enough to ensure this obscure topic stayed obscure. I have hiked all Colo. 14ers (except Culebra) and ran (jogged) a sub-4 hour marathon, and not even I really care that much about Ryan's d-baggery. It's a real stretch to think that average Joe is going to care about this, especially in 4 years.

Anyone who thinks that getting caught being a BS-artist and teller of whoppers is fatal to a political career should spend a few minutes googling the career of our illustrious current VP.